1
--- 1926 Associated Wholesale Grocers is one of the largest grocery wholesalers in the United States and the nation’s oldest grocery cooperative. Founded in 1924 and incorporated in 1926, AWG has enjoyed over 90 years of growth and success. --- 1936-1938 The late 1930’s were a time of expansion for AG with the purchase of two warehouses. The first, the Associated Grocers warehouse in Joplin, Missouri came in 1936. Two years later, AG purchased all the merchandise from the bankrupt United Grocers, Springfield, Missouri warehouse. These two facilities enabled AG to expand its service coverage area throughout southern and southwest Missouri and into eastern Kansas. Associated Wholesale Grocers Historical Timeline --- 1953 In 1953, the company name was changed to Associated Wholesale Grocers, Inc., (AWG) and the following year, AWG paid its first year-end patronage of $20,441 to members. --- 1956 AWG moved from the warehouse it had occupied for more than two decades across the state line into a 200,000 square foot facility in the Fairfax District in Kansas City, Kansas. The 7,500 square foot freezer stocked 400 items which were packed in insulated chests and loaded on dry grocery trucks for delivery to stores. In Springfield, in 1965, a 200,000 square foot warehouse was built to serve the needs of a growing customer base in Southwest Missouri and Arkansas. --- 1974 The first Universal Product Code (UPC) was rolled out which led to the arrival of checkout scanning in 1974. The revolution had started. --- 1974-76 The development of the Price Chopper/ Price Mart and Country Mart concepts and the rollouts of Always Save and Best Choice gave retailers the tools necessary to satisfy a price conscious public. --- 1985 As consumers began spending more money at restaurants (38 cents of every food dollar), retailers searched for a way to satisfy the public demand for convenience and ready-to-eat items. This brought about the addition of the bakery- deli department at AWG, and the first Price Chopper to offer these departments opened in 1985. --- 1986 The former Homeland warehouse in Oklahoma City became AWG’s third division. Valu Merchandisers, AWG’s wholly-owned subsidiary supplying health and beauty care products and general merchandise, came on line offering a selection of more than 12,000 items from its 219,000 square foot facility in Fort Scott, Kansas. --- 1996 Sales for 1996 topped $3 billion for the first time. --- 2003 AWG expanded into the southeast with the acquisition of two grocery distribution centers: Goodlettsville, Tennessee and Southaven, Mississippi. This acquisition also included a distribution center in Memphis, Tennessee now operated by AWG’s Valu Merchandisers (VMC) subsidiary. --- 2007 AWG acquired its newest distribution center in Fort Worth, Texas. Also in 2007, AWG built a brand new, state-of-the- art distribution center in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. --- 2013 In 2011, AWG broke ground on its newest division in the Gulf Coast. This warehouse began shipping on January 20, 2013 --- 2012 AWG completed an expansion of its headquarters in Kansas City, KS. The newly expanded complex houses over one-thousand employees, including the AWG corporate office and the Kansas City distribution center, as well as 100 employees from the Valu Merchandisers subsidiary. --- 2010 Sales of AWG’s private label products reached the $1 billion mark for the first time. --- 1972 By the end of the decade, AWG had two new warehouses. In Springfield, a 300,000 square foot facility was built to replace the one destroyed by fire in 1970, and in Kansas City the long-awaited 565,000 square foot office and warehouse complex was ready for occupancy in 1972.
